Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker candidly explained his reasons for joining Oneworld – revealing a potential missed opportunity for Star Alliance – using his trademark straight talking at the recent Airline Business Aviation Partnership Summit.
The two-day event in Madrid, which was also headlined by the three global alliance chiefs, examined the benefits of being in a partnership and opportunities that could exist to tie up across the supply chain.
Qatar Airways became a member of Oneworld on 30 October 2013 and is one of several additions to the alliance over the past 12 months. Other new recruits include US Airways and SriLankan Airlines.
"Broadly speaking, the interline revenue secured for the membership of Oneworld for all member airlines cumulatively has increased by 135% during this financial year versus the last, which is a tremendous point of validation," says Al Baker.
He adds that Qatar's accession has expanded the number of Oneworld destinations served by 21%.
Al Baker cites Oneworld's more flexible approach to its members' partnership strategies as being a key part of its appeal, and expects Qatar to pursue tie-ups with airlines both inside and outside the alliance.
"From here on, we are exploring our future with partnerships. The joint venture with [fellow Oneworld member] Cathay Pacific was the first one we rolled out, in March, and there are others we are currently pursuing," he says. "We will not hesitate to do partnerships with others [outside Oneworld] as long as it is not detrimental to our Oneworld partners."
The decision to join Oneworld came after a "surprise invitation", says Al Baker, who admits that at one time he thought Star would be Qatar's destiny.
"Since the early days we were codesharing with Lufthansa and several of the Star alliance partners. In the early 2000s we were very keen to join Star and made several approaches to sound them out," says Al Baker. "[Some Star members' opinions] were always that Qatar Airways was siphoning a lot of business out of Star hubs, particularly in Germany. Frankly speaking, we were kicked out by Lufthansa from the codeshare."
Al Baker says the airline accepted Oneworld's invitation in 2012 and that Qatar "will add great benefit to them and they will for us".
However, he reveals that, subsequent to the Oneworld invitation, Qatar was "approached by individuals to try to entice us to change our mind".
Following a raft of new members and switches, the three alliances are now entering a period of relative calm. Just one new airline – Star-bound Avianca Brazil – is outstanding among the announced new members.
Although Avianca Brazil's arrival in Star is imminent, the alliance's chief executive, Mark Schwab, admits that a second Brazilian member is being sought to fill the void left by TAM's switch to Oneworld. But otherwise he sees the pace of alliance expansion slowing.
"Our years of adding two carriers every year are behind us. With 28 members now serving 1,316 cities, we have the most comprehensive network and feel good about that position," says Schwab. "But I think there's still an opportunity to add more value with the small regional carriers at the end of the network that can feed into network."
Michael Wisbrun, managing director of SkyTeam, concurs that the rush to add new members is over. "Our network has a global footprint that we are satisfied with, and we are focusing more and more on our 26 million interline customers and 8 million using our members' hubs. We're focusing more to prepare products and programmes to make their life easier, than on making a bigger scale," he says.
Despite adding four major airlines in the last year, Oneworld is still on the prowl, says chief executive Bruce Ashby: "We added 15 members and affiliates recently and we are drawing a short breath, but we would be back in the fray again [looking for members] if it made sense.
"Oneworld wants to be the most connected and relevant for the top business centres in the world, and when there are potential new members that will help us do that then I'll be very interested."
Schwab admits that TAM's departure, which followed its merger with Oneworld member LAN Airlines, was a blow. "We do miss having TAM, in as much as Brazil is the largest of the South American markets – it's about 40% of business in Latin America. So we've been busy in looking for and recruiting replacement membership in Brazil," says Schwab.
Schwab says Star "will be looking for a second [Brazilian] member to fill that gap".
The two major Brazilian carriers that remain unaligned are Azul and Gol. The latter has close ties to SkyTeam through its minority shareholders, Delta Air Lines and Air France-KLM, which leaves Azul as Star's mostly likely target, and Schwab hints that this is the case: "You can make an intelligent guess as to whom we might be talking to."
Source: Airline Business
